


Musings of an Anachronism

by TheRoseBanshee



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Gen, Internal Conflict, Light Angst, POV Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Platonic Relationships, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:08:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22523002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRoseBanshee/pseuds/TheRoseBanshee
Summary: It's tough waking up, after 100 years, with no memories. It's even worse to wake up after 100 years WITH your memories. Watching a world that has moved on withought you, and the one thing that was supposed to be the same is the most different thing in your new reality.
Relationships: Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link/Prince Sidon
Comments: 6
Kudos: 105





	Musings of an Anachronism

**Author's Note:**

> This is the inner musings of Zelda. The link/sidon tag is so brief it is blink and you'll miss it.

Zelda looks on with a melancholy smile. The castle looks no different after being returned to its former glory. She thinks its a mistake. A foolish grab at once was. A mistake that only highlights how nothing is the same anymore. An anachronism much like herself. A princess, now queen, from a time irrelevant to the current world. 

Nothing was the same, especially not the champions she thinks, as she overlooks the new champions who just replaced her dead friends. "No," she sighs "not replace, they're here to honor them. They stepped up not because a king ordered them, not at a claim to glory, but because they truly wanted to help, to protect their home and people." She still wants to be bitter, to kick out against these people, throw a tantrum. She will not.

She looks at the white rito, Teba, is calm, sure with the wisdom and strength of the father he is. He is not the boisterous pompous rito she had called a friend. Yunobo is sweet but scared of everything yet he still only wants to help. He is nothing like the confident goron that was Daruk. "Well," she chuckles under her breath, thinking back to a fond memory, "Maybe he's like Daruk when faced with a dog." Sidon is brash, charming, cheerful not like the quiet peace Mipha brought with every step. Even worse she remembers him from before the calamity. He was sooo small then, barely reaching her knees. Now he has to crouch just to get under a door frame in the castle. Knowing him 100 years ago almost makes it worse somehow to see him today. She wants to treat him like she would back then. Lady Riju is similar to Urbosa. She holds the same dignity and fire in politics and battle, but instead of the mother figure Urbosa was. Zelda feels the need to BE the mother figure. For Goddess' sake Riju is a child. A. Child. She watches as Link and the former prove her point as they try to ruffle the feathers of Teba, as he meditates. They're one-upping the other with the worst most terrible puns she has ever heard. The Zora prince cheers Link on, for his clever wit bringing a blush to the hero's face. Riju is both punning and teasing Link for his blush and Yunobo just smiles brightly at the group, simply content to be with friends, and not being used as a makeshift cannonball. 

While most of his puns are in sign Link occasionally says a few, just as atrocious verbally as in sign, but they're in his small voice. The voice she had only heard a handful of times before the calamity. Taking the time to really look at him she notes his wild smile, hair a messy bun held loosely with sheika chopsticks, and his eyes hold a happy brightness she would never have seen 100 years ago. 

It was selfish but that happiness hurts the most. It cut worse than all her friends being dead, than Impa being old, or Purah somehow being six. Before the calamity Link had become a friend to her...despite her initial rudeness. For 100 years she battled the darkness, and she knew at least when Link awoke, he would surely retrieve his memories, and be the constant she needed. Like a lifeline in an ever changing sea, at least she could rely on Link being the same. 

That was a lie. 

Link was the most changed thing in this new time. He is wild, feral and...happy. He hums while cooking, giggles at stupid puns, pulls the wildest craziest stunts that would have been considered unbecoming of a knight of his status. Seriously who blows up fish instead of using a fishing pole, or surfs on their shield to shoot a mythical creature for rupees, or cross dresses for the heck of it so they can buy jewelry in Gerudo?!? This...boy, is a stranger.

Her saddest revelation is his laughter. Before just a small restrained chuckle would have been a feat, but now it fills the room like music. She realizes it's such a naive innocent sound, of a boy. A boy who despite being tied to a destiny unasked, having his friends die and then even himself, despite being stripped of his memories and once again thrust into an unasked destiny, has a chance to choose his life for once.

She's reminded of a memory,   
"What if, one day, you realized that you just weren’t meant to be a fighter. Yet the only thing people ever said was that you were born into a family of the royal guard, and so no matter what you thought, you had to become a knight.  
If that was the only thing you were ever told...

I wonder, then…

would you have chosen a different path?"

He didn't answer her then not with words, the question was about herself anyways, but she remembers in the rain his eyes reflected the same one she was greeted with everytime she looked at her reflection after one of her father's lectures. He too wasn't given the option of choice.  
Obviously no matter what he WAS a fighter. He had defeated calamity ganon. That is irrefutable, but he was no longer JUST that, and more so he was not the making of a proper, rule abiding royal guard, at least not anymore. 

"His laughter...it's so carefree," she thinks looking at the boy who used to be so stoic, so burdened...and sad. She once again feels selfish for her earlier thoughts. She realizes after him protecting her every step of the way, it was her turn to protect him, protect the childlike wonder she saw in his eyes, the happiness he can't contain as he hops up and down, given the chance to travel, the laughter their new friends bring, or the joy that lights up his face when taking care of his horse. 

She is going to make sure he can choose his path this time. This time, her friend. No, her brother, is free. A bird released from a cage. As she listens to that twinkling sound and watches the new champions she smiles wistfully. 

"Maybe the future won't be so bad."

Link looks up at her smiling, and signs, "why so quiet?"

She just hums in response, "I'm thinking about redecorating the castle."


End file.
